Even-keeled Randolph ignoring criticism

May 11, 2008

Written by

Sam Borden

Journal News columnist

NEW YORK - The criticisms come from all sides. Shrill voices on the radio, sharps jabs on the Internet and pointed barbs in the newspapers. It is nearly impossible for Willie Randolph to ignore all the venom dripping within the Mets' universe and, even if he could, it would find him anyway because there would still be Cousin Barry.

Cousin Barry is a sports fan, maybe the biggest in Randolph's family. Cousin Barry is also the relative who almost always gets in touch with Randolph to let him know what people - fans, writers and TV personalities - are saying about him: He's too soft, he doesn't know how to manage pitchers, he isn't emotional enough. Cousin Barry passes all of it along.

"I tell him all the time, 'Barry, I don't want to hear it,' " Randolph said recently, laughing. "I see his number come up and I say, 'Nah, I don't need that.' "

The voices were particularly loud over this past week, as the Mets' early-season "scuffles," (Randolph's word), stretched into a second month. Boos have become a regular occurrence at Shea Stadium and sometimes they trickle down in response to seemingly innocuous developments, like a pitcher throwing a first-pitch ball to an opposing hitter. Overreaction? Clearly, but it's obvious the jagged edge Mets fans were left with after last fall's disaster has not been smoothed. And Randolph, as much as anyone, is their target.

It's not fair, though it rarely is when it comes to managers or coaches and underwhelming professional sports teams. Still, Randolph's success in 2006 (when the Mets were a game away from the World Series) should buy him at least this full season to show that he can bring his team back from its historic collapse. If George Steinbrenner was able to restrain himself from firing Joe Torre after the Yankees blew a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS and then started 2005 with an 11-19 record, Randolph certainly should make it through this erratic spring even with the seven-games-up-with-17-to-go debacle still lingering in the Queens air.

Truth is, Steinbrenner would probably be proud of Mets fans calling for Randolph's ouster. That sort of move is right up the Old Boss' alley; if there was some way to get Billy Martin involved as Randolph's replacement, all the better. "What can a manager do anyway?" Mets closer Billy Wagner said. "He can't pitch. He can't hit. He can't play the field. He puts us out there to play and then we play. When we play well, he looks good."

This, of course, is true, but it also doesn't matter much. Not in this town. Not with this team. Randolph knows that as well as anyone. He grew up here, grew up following the Knicks and all the other New York teams. He was a fan.

It was different then, he said. Not as harsh. Not as quick to judge. Not as reactionary. There were no blogs, no screaming on the airwaves and no 24-hour news cycle. "It's probably the worst it's been now," he said at one point Friday afternoon. Later, he mused, "It's always curious to me how things become the norm," before adding, "sometimes it's comical, really."

Sometimes it is. We all probably could agree on that, but it's also the way it goes in this city. Last week Randolph was quoted as saying that, essentially, some Mets preferred playing on the road because the Shea fans were too negative, ostensibly because they hadn't gotten over what happened last September. Randolph says his words were misunderstood.

Whatever, the story - and the sentiment, whether intended or not - only ratcheted up the vigor with which Randolph was criticized. It also raised the issue (yet again) of whether the Mets themselves had gotten past their monumental collapse.

That, naturally, led to another round of discussion over the oft-cited concern that Randolph is too passive, too bland. A fiery manager wouldn't have let his club unravel like the Mets did, the theory goes. That's why Randolph deserves much of the blame.

Truthfully, there may be some validity to those claims; Randolph's "so?" persona borders on grating at times. But he has also always been an "I've seen it before" kind of person. He was that way as a third-base coach with the Yankees and he has been that way his entire tenure with the Mets. Some people get excited over sunshine, others yawn at a shooting star. Randolph is clearly the latter.

"Fans want passion and excitement - they want the roller coaster," Wagner said. "But (Randolph) just can't ride that. If he's the same every day, as a player you get the consistent feeling, and that's what you need over the course of a season.

"I see it from both sides. As a fan, I can see why they hang on to last season. What have we done to change it? Until we get in that situation again and get back to the playoffs, that's when they'll get over it. But as a player you can't live like that. You just can't."

Here is what is going to happen: Randolph gets the rest of this year. He has earned that. He gets the rest of this season to try to help all the voices around him truly get over the disaster that was the fall of 2007. If he does - if he takes the Mets deep into October - then this start to the season will be forgotten. The voices will quiet down.

If he doesn't? If he doesn't, well, you know what will happen, just like Randolph knows: Cousin Barry will be calling. A lot.